A grant from the provincial government is helping the Fort McMurray Family Crisis Society inch a little closer to a new emergency shelter.

Fort McMurray MLAs Don Scott and Mike Allen were on hand Saturday to award the society a $125,000 Community Facilities Enhancement Project grant. FMFC executive director Michele Taylor says it’s a huge help as it inches towards its $9-million goal for the new building and expanded services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

“It’s so exciting, because it gets us that much closer to breaking ground on the new shelter,” she said. “We’ve done very very well, but it’s been harder than we’ve thought to get over that finish line, probably because we’ve been fundraising for so long.”

The new shelter will be partially funded by the sale of the society’s current building, according to Taylor, and will feature single, private rooms instead of the current facility’s dormitory housing.

“You can have women coming in the middle of the night with the shirts on their back, not even a toothbrush, and they’re coming into a room where other women are sleeping that they’ve never even met before,” she said. “It’s the best we’ve been able to do at this point, but we’re so thrilled that we’re going to have a level of service that’s far better than that.”

Scott said the work of the society is crucial.

“They do such critical work in the region that we couldn’t be prouder of the hard work that people on the front lines are doing,” he said. “I’m so grateful that they are here.”

It’s the second half of a $38-million project that includes the society’s Compass building, which provides second-stage long-term housing and transitional housing to a greater degree than the emergency shelter.

“The expansion that they have in mind is going to really help ladies who are in abusive situations and really help them deliver the services that this community so desperately needs,” he said.

The projects are currently scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015.